Time to mend and make do, beg, borrow and barter.

Pippilongstocking

A wee result - buying weekend on the combi-oil site I use for bargain (?) oil - managed to get 500l for 94.94 after my account balance was used too.

48ppl

Anyone using oil and wanting a wee bit off a first order give me a shout and I can recommend a friend. I've opted for a two week delivery which should be fine if we're careful. There's little over 1/10th tank left. But with just showers, we should be good.

Two good things today I guess, did expect the tax thing to be a few months away from paying and less in the 'oil' account.

Bonnie day here - washing is baking in the conservatory on the frames, rain was due but hasn't materialised.

Happy days.

Happy saturday folks. DS has gone, sad times, but he's off on new adventure with his lady. Nice to see him happy.

troglodyte

Pippilongstocking wrote: »

We both need chicken networks it seems.
Make a poster about the joy of hens???

Ha ha I love that idea! So far we have a reciprocal arrangement with a friend and her cats which mostly works out, but not always since we both have to work around school holidays. People actually pay to groom ponies or take llamas for walks, so why not hire out our chooks??

Pippilongstocking wrote: »

Oh I will have a look at that Trog thank you me dear. Hospital for now is no longer an option on a regular basis (I wont miss THAT carpark for sure), sadly there are no more treatments to be had, so we're making home comfy for now and taking each day as it comes. Parent was last seen directing younger siblings in the garden to do the hard work from a comfy chair - still plenty spirit there for sure.

I hope you and yours are grand.

I am sorry to hear that, but glad spirits are still up. What else can you do I guess? You just have to keep going through thick and thin. And gardening is always good

troglodyte

We've all missed seeing you around here Pippi. It sounds as though you are managing to keep on top of things, just about. Sorry it's all so tight. You've certainly done well on the heating :T
I've been trying to work out how to improve our cooking situation. The house came with a huge gas range which we never seem to be able to get the best from, it always takes longer than expected to cook anything and only one of the 4 ovens gets regular use, one is only used for proving bread about once a year! It doesn't even heat the water. It's an absolute monster and in the summer the kitchen is far too hot, but without it we are left with just a microwave and although I have tried some quite adventurous microwave cooking, it's very hard to get more than one dish ready and still hot at the same time!

I've looked at getting an electric range, the 'Everhot' make are allegedly designed specifically to be used with renewable electricity generation (and we have solar PV) and can be turned off and on more easily or just used as a regular oven and comes with optional induction hobs, it all sounds ideal but the price is astronomical :eek:

rtandon27

Aww Pips - it is so very good to hear from you - silly to say, but it's hearing the every day trials & tribulations that help me realize we are 'normal' :rotfl: (or as normal as we'll ever get!)

Have got to get OH to check our oil tank as well - we were away for a month in March so have found that our leccy D/D went down & still oil in our tank when we got back! - temporary reprieve but nice to have nonetheless

Our budgets are doing OK - working hard not to spend more than we have & trying to keep the good habit of saving up before buying anything we may need!

Off to tackle the laundry mountain - folding and ironing will be the rest of the day!

Pippilongstocking

rtandon27 wrote: »

Aww Pips - it is so very good to hear from you - silly to say, but it's hearing the every day trials & tribulations that help me realize we are 'normal' :rotfl: (or as normal as we'll ever get!)

:beer::beer:

Have got to get OH to check our oil tank as well - we were away for a month in March so have found that our leccy D/D went down & still oil in our tank when we got back! - temporary reprieve but nice to have nonetheless

:money::money:

Our budgets are doing OK - working hard not to spend more than we have & trying to keep the good habit of saving up before buying anything we may need!

Off to tackle the laundry mountain - folding and ironing will be the rest of the day!

:eek: to laundry mountains, I have a lot of washing to do but thankfully work in an industry where there is no requirement for ironing. Good luck with that and thanks. I need to get back into my MSE headset. I did a budget and seemingly I have £790 free each month :cool: a total of £9480.36 per year.

:eek: where has that all gone???? :eek:

I need a budgeting app thing having a look about I need help that's for sure.

Updated the CC account details so I can finally log in, they changed their system like A YEAR AGO so I've not logged in - A YEAR. Blinking nora - well that was an eyeopener when that was opened. EYEWATERING in fact. I had wondered why the minimum payment bit was so big. :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

troglodyte wrote: »

We've all missed seeing you around here Pippi. It sounds as though you are managing to keep on top of things, just about. Sorry it's all so tight. You've certainly done well on the heating :T
I've been trying to work out how to improve our cooking situation. The house came with a huge gas range which we never seem to be able to get the best from, it always takes longer than expected to cook anything and only one of the 4 ovens gets regular use, one is only used for proving bread about once a yeat! It doesn't even heat the water. It's an absolute monster and in the summer the kitchen is far too hot, but without it we are left with just a microwave and although I have tried some quite adventurous microwave cooking, it's very hard to get more than one dish ready and still hot at the same time!

I've looked at getting an electric range, the 'Everhot' make are allegedly designed specifically to be used with renewable electricity generation (and we have solar PV) and can be turned off and on more easily or just used as a regular oven and comes with optional induction hobs, it all sounds ideal but the price is astronomical :eek:

Thank you that's very kind to say. Missed you all too.

Yikes - its a hard one isn't it - I feel like I'm drowning but I've been sick this weekend and so managed to do some laptop housey stuff too. We were faced with a similar situation here - our range is wood fired, runs no radiators.

We've invested in a cooker LPG and a wee gas stove that looks like a wood burner ironically and the big range is hardly ever put on.

I'm with you with the microwave juggle. When we moved in here it was giant range, tiny on top double induction mobile hob and an oven.

If you find the right thing its an investment. OK so we didn't need a big 6 hob gas cooker, but OH just couldn't do without all six rings.

It does mean we can use minimal gas, wood and stuff - neither heater nor new cooker were cheap but its an investment right? :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Just like the cooker hood that still still still in the kitchen it will go up one day.

Any recommendations for budgeting apps crack at - tried YNAB and I just can't get along with it. Sorry folks who love it.

I did try for erm 15 minutes.

Pippilongstocking

Here are some numbers which I just don't want to talk about. But I can't keep my head in the sand.

Don't pay off your CC after a massive spend, pay the minimum for ages wondering why its not getting better - this is what happens. Especially when you can't log in nor find the motivation to fix that situation. Well its fixed now.

£4043.41 - Beast number 1

Equally living off fast food, easy fixes and daily petrol/parking hospital runs for what feels like forever. Chucking on CC and head in the sand. Only paying off the basics.

£3813.97 - Beast number 2

What an utter noodle.

Sleeves up me thinks. I can't manage a second job - but if I can see where my budget is leaking substantially from, I can blinking well fix it. Especially if I'm just haemorrhaging money. I've got a decent job and low household expenses. We can do this.

I really hadn't realised how bad it had got. Literally gobsmacked. I also owe DH for the 3, yes three, holidays I've had this year so far. Well, 2 one was technically in December and I paid some of that already. Will get the low down on the holiday spends later.

This time last year I was sub 2k.

Now I'm at £7867.38

Pippilongstocking

So a bit of snooping on the CC's has releaved several subscriptions I either forgotten about or didn't know I'd even done.

So I've cancelled them all.

£26/month for the times and Sunday times (??????????) started in Jan 2019 ? like what happenned there?

My fitness pal £39.99 annually - Ok guilty here but I don't use it so its gone.

A podcast costing me £11/month I must have listened ot a free one and clicked the OK bit - £616 that's cost me last year. I'm literally an idiot.

£5.99 for a second MS office subscription

and a work subscription for £75 a year which I've clearly done on my card with a view to claiming back. Need find the invoice for that one eh?

And that's just having a 10 minute snoop into my money.

Sheesh. I can do better than this.

rtandon27

Pippilongstocking wrote: »

...And that's just having a 10 minute snoop into my money.

Sheesh. I can do better than this....

Or if you look at it another way Pips - you just saved yourself several hundred pounds going forward! - not bad for 10 minutes effort!:D

...on another note - was going to recommend YNAB, as it keeps me on the straight and narrow...

(but I tottally get that you may not get along with it)

How about good old Excel for the time being, but with the caveat that you look at it once a week, to record your sins & plot out redeeming habits?

Sometimes life bogs us down Pips, don't let it be too :eek:- what matters is that you know what good habits look like, have had them before & just need to resurrect them!:D:D:D

findingthisdifficult

Hi Pips, sorry to gatecrash your diary, I've been reading the last few pages to get up to speed.

I have a recommendation for a budget app, I've been using Debit & Credit since December last year, it allows me to track 2 accounts for free or unlimited accounts if I pay for the premium version.
I track our bills account and our spending account, it's quite manual in the fact you have to reconcile it with your bank accounts but I think I prefer that. I just drop in expenses as they happen then check the bank every couple of days to make sure we're all aligned.
The app allows you to create budgets for categories, currently I have a budget for fuel and groceries, I can see at a quick glance how much is left in the budget.
It also creates reports so you can see exactly how much you spend on each category and where you're spending money (Mr Te$co occurs frequently no my reports)
It has a report that can show you a predicted future wealth based on your scheduled payments as well.

Sorry for the really lengthy recommendation, I genuinely think that app is the reason that I am sat here today, 2 days before payday with money allocated in 5 different pots:
Business Account - side line to the day job
Savings - all things emergency
Spends Account - groceries, fuel and days out for the month
Fun Days Account - money for hotel stays, birthdays, holidays etc
Bills Account - buffer where I overstate my bills so there is always something left there just in case a bill is slightly higher than I thought.

This time last year, I was living pay day to pay day and didn't have money left in any accounts.

Right enough of my rambling, good luck on your debt smashing journey.

Pippilongstocking

RT thanks me dear sometimes things just slip I guess. And slip they have. At least I have found the culprit of 100's of not a clue spends.

I will play a bit with YNAB - I had forgot I have a Revolut card and the app on that is pretty useful as most of my spends are on a card, I could transfer budget over onto that and use it for spends and tracking. Will ponder I know I find it super useful when away that's for sure. Its a one time use and log card too - so as I paid for it way back when I might use it.

Excel I do love a wee sheet. I'm lucky that I don't have much in the way of household spends just tinternet/phone/mob/oil/ on DD - Web/phone I can surely get a better deal on too. Will snap up my trust spreadsheet and open up for May. Thanks chick

FTD you've certainly slashed your credit haven't you - well done. I'll have a look at what you're suggesting too. Makes sense to allocate different spend areas - natter away as far as I'm concerned if its helped you it might help me.

Thanks so much for the replies very happy to have a look about.

In the meantime I've dusted off the revolut card and put my bank card away.

Tea needless to say will be from the stores. As will lunch tomorrow cos I'm going to sort that tonight.

Pay day on Tuesday, lets see if I can keep my remaining £90 in the bank and overpay something.

Although I do have a flat tyre......phooey. Will ring the cheap tyre place and see if they have a budget one in stock tomorrow.